I won’t post the interview to focus on the discussion points I came away with. He said a few things I took note of. Its Talib’s show “Catching Fades” for anyone that is interested.
First is that he put into perspective something we have all noticed. Matt Stafford went from one view of him with the Lions to a completely different view of him with the Rams…and a ton more publicity. Brockers did not say a word about Stafford or even elude to Stafford. What he DID say that stuck with me was talking about his transition from St. Louis to LA. This was a Rams to Rams “trade” for Brockers. He had been in St. Louis for about 4 years so he had a decent handle on what it meant to be a St. Louis Ram. He said it was a night and day difference to become an LA Ram. It just put things into perspective for me that we probably shouldn’t think of it as a Lions vs Rams thing in how Matt is suddenly covered as much as a Detroit to LA thing. And to have a guy who can speak to the Rams being viewed differently vs the Rams kind of hit home for me.
Brockers wasn’t here for Patricia but he’s listened to the comments made by the guys who did. He said the new staff talks to the players like men and answers their questions. The previous staff did not. This jives completely with “The Patriot Way” and what players have said about playing for Patriot coaches. I’m expanding on that thought for a second because Brockers and Talib did. They said they feel the biggest problem with Patriot assistants is they try to be Bill Belichick. Talib said there were things Belichick said to him in New England that he respected because he was Bill Belichick. But if it had happened with a different HC somewhere else it would have been a problem. Cam Newton said something similar in an interview before he resigned with the Pats. He said there were several incidents with assistant coaches where the interaction would have gone alot different somewhere else. But he said he realized where he was and just ate it and moved on. I think Patriot assistant coaches get used to the idea of how they treat players and don’t realize the entire interaction only went down the way it did because of being in New England backed by Bill Belichick. They live in a false reality where they spend years being trained to do something in a way that doesn’t work outside of that bubble.
I’m worried about the wide receivers. Brockers was able to throw alot of fluffy smoke into the air about the current Lions situation but he couldn’t sugar coat a wide receiver question from Talib of “who the hell is Goff going to throw to?” That was the moment to bring up a few names that are looking good or seem promising. He didn’t do it, and maybe he couldn’t do it. The best he could say was something along the lines of “whoever wants to step up will have their chance. The targets are there for whoever wants them.” Ouch.
Talib said he had to research college players as part of his media gigs and he loves Alim McNeill. It echos something that’s making the rounds now and how bad the Eagles GM screwed up being cute trading down to pick up a low value magic bean instead of just taking the player they wanted.
